Nexus finally dead? This year’s Nexus phones might not be “Nexus” phones at all
Well, how about this for a crazy rumor? According to Android Central, the HTC-made Nexus phones we’ve been hearing a lot about lately — the Nexus Sailfish and Nexus Marlin — may not even be Nexus phones.
Word is that Google is looking to drop the Nexus names from these devices. We’re not sure what they’ll be marketed as, but namesake isn’t the only thing that’s going to be changing, according to the report.
Rumor has it Google will also take this opportunity to start spicing things up on the software side by adding tweaks and features that may only be found on these phones. It’s possible these features could be implemented to support specific hardware like we saw with, say, the dual camera on the HTC One M8 Google Play Edition, but there aren’t any details as to what’s in store.
This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard something like this. Google was reportedly looking to do much of the same back in 2014 by replacing the Nexus line with an idea known as Android Silver. Devices in this new lineage would look to offer ultra-premium quality, and Google’s hope was to make them widely available on a variety of carriers.
Maybe Google wasn’t ready for a Nexus-less future back in 2014.
That didn’t happen. Instead, we’ve been getting more Nexus phones ever since, and each phone has had no problem being tied to the carrier of your choice. And one of those phones — the Nexus 6P — was about as premium as you could ask for.
The report suggests that the Nexus line may not be “dead,” but if these devices launch without the Nexus name at a time when Google typically launches Nexus devices, it’d be a very strong indication to the contrary. Let’s just hope the spirit of the brand lives on and Google does right by those who choose to stick it out for the long haul.